Several earthquakes shook southeastern Turkey, near the border with Syria. The people now urgently need support.
After earthquakes in Azaz: "We still have hope"
The Syrian city of Azaz near the Turkish-Syrian border was hit particularly hard by the earthquakes of February 6, 2023. Welthungerhilfe staff member Adib Abokhors told us about the situation on the ground.
Adib, where are the people affected currently staying? Are there places they can go if they have lost their homes?
The people who have cars move to a more secure area outside the city, because many buildings are at risk of collapsing. There they sleep in their cars. As for some of the people that don’t have cars, they still sleep in the partially collapsed buildings unfortunately. Because it’s very cold outside and it’s raining. That’s very dangerous – but just as dangerous to sleep outside in the freezing temperatures.
What do people need the most right now?
The people who lost their houses, their homes, who are now living on the streets or in tents, they need shelters that can protect them from the cold and the rain. And like I said, there are families still living inside the destroyed buildings out of necessity. We urgently need an assessment of which buildings are stable enough to be lived in properly.
What do the helpers need most?
The helpers need equipment and the required machinery to get people out of the collapsed buildings. There are still people trapped under the rubble. The civilians and the civil protection, they are doing their best to rescue the people, but they are reaching their limits due to the lack of appropriate gear.
Do the people still have hope after all that? After the war and now the earthquake?
Yes, of course we have hope. We have lived in a war for almost 13 years. More than a decade. And now the earthquake. Yeah, a lot of people died and are injured, and most people lost one of their relatives, but yes, we still have hope. We are human beings doing our best to survive. You can see the happiness when people are saving a person and manage to get them out from under the buildings. That gives us hope. We will never lose hope.
How Welthungerhilfe is helping on-site
We are active in Azaz and Idlib in northwestern Syria in cooperation with our partner organization SARD and in close consultation with local authorities and the United Nations:
- We are distributing 1,800 ready-to-eat meals there (one ration is enough for five people over five days) and 120 makeshift shelters or tents, as well as
- hygiene items, kitchen utensils, clothing and household items to a total of 600 people.
- Plans are also underway to construct latrines and water tanks for temporary shelters.
- A community center will be repaired for use as an emergency shelter.